writer and journalist

About

Josh is a freelance journalist based in Istanbul. He is Turkey/Caucasus editor at EurasiaNet and his articles also have appeared in Slate, The New York Times,, The Wilson Quarterly, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera America, Roads & Kingdoms, and Jane's Defence Weekly. He blogs on Eurasian defense and security at The Bug Pit. Follow him on Twitter at @joshuakucera, and on Instagram. See more here.

June 23, 2012

The Great Caspian Arms Race - Foreign Policy

I have a new piece in Foreign Policy on the slow, but real, militarization of the Caspian Sea:

While the world focuses on the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran, a little-noticed arms buildup has been taking place to Iran's north, among the ex-Soviet states bordering the Caspian. Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union created three new states on the sea, their boundaries have still not been delineated. And with rich oil and natural gas fields in those contested waters, the new countries -- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan -- are using their newfound riches to protect the source of that wealth. So they're building new navies from scratch, while the two bigger powers, Russia and Iran, are strengthening the navies they already have. It all amounts to something that has never before been seen on the Caspian: an arms race.